Lawyers Weekly reports..
A Sydney-based solicitor has been jailed for 10 years for misappropriating more than $6 million that two deceased clients had left to charitable organisations.
Mark Lee O’Brien was handed the sentence in the District Court of NSW after it found him guilty of fraudulently obtaining more than $6 million from his clients in 2015, 2017 and 2018 to purchase a $3.5 million property and to allegedly intend to use some of the funds to keep his firm afloat.
He will serve a non-parole period of six years and his wife, Therese O’Brien, will serve three years by way of intensive correction order. Mr O’Brien’s practising certificate was immediately suspended by the Law Society in 2019 following a referral after his fraudulent behaviour was eventually suspected.
In misappropriating the funds meant for charities, Mr O’Brien employed a number of other fraudulent methods for covering up his behaviour, including transferring under a different name, making smaller donations to charities to obtain a receipt and using letterheads from the organisations to create fake letters appearing from the chief executives.
